Let's go back to the list of statements above to develop a list of actions that we feel constitute sin. From that list we can list: commit murder steal rebel against God idol worship covet blasphemy gluttony rebellion false witness worry doubting hesitation unfaithfulness arrogance fear deceiving scheming unreliable boasting uncaring unhearing There are twenty one above, plus others. Look at your list and you will probably find others. You can add them to this list if you want to, but this list is long enough to demonstrate that each of us fall into the category at one place or another. This list, just like the ten commandments demonstrates only one thing. That one thing is that we in our defiled state can not please God. It also shows us that we can not, by ourselves, correct ourselves to a place where we can please God. James 2:10 tells us "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.". Is there something common that links one point of the law to another? So what are we to believe, some of the list above and probably in your list depict things that are natural to every day life. Are we to believe that to live is to sin? Yes! Standing by ourselves we are helpless, and hopeless in God the Father's eyes, beyond reach of anything but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We who are saved understand that only through Jesus accepting the imputation of our sin to himself and imputing His righteousness to us through the cross are we redeemed in God the Father's eyes. After we are saved, God the Father sees us as his children, joint heirs with Jesus, God the Son. As His children, we attempt pleasing Him by correcting as many of our acts in the above list as possible. Some we are successful with, others known only to us and God, we never seem to be able to overcome. Why? Is our faith lacking? Are we less saved than some around us who appear to be so successful 127 _______________________________________________________________________________ in living so 'spiritually'? No! Those who appear to be successful also have their 'pet sins' that plague them. Everybody does. To not admit this fact is pharasean. Why is this true? If we are saved, God has promised that we are victorious over sin. It would appear that if we are saved either God misled us --- or we don't have a good definition of what sin really is. God in his righteousness can not deceive. If He said it, it is true. What then is our dilemma caused by. There is deception somewhere. Where is it from? If not from God, then where do we look. If we look at Genesis 3:1-5 we see the first deception put before us in the forms of Adam and Eve "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.". Where is the deception here? Satan covered the whole truth with a half truth. What he said, about not dying, was true physically for the moment. But it covered up the fact that they died spiritually, in addition to being condemned to a physical death later. You see we lose sight of the fact that, had they obeyed God and not eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would have eventually eaten fruit from the tree of life, and gained immortality. A reward that is now reserved for the saved, post-millenially. I am satisfied that we have no idea just how subtle Satan truly is. Satan also inferred that God was threatened by a person's desire to be God like, and yet by our name, Christian, isn't that what we are supposed to be - Christ like. Since this also describes what is referred to as the original sin, possibly it would be beneficial to park here and study this passage in greater depth. Was it the 128 _______________________________________________________________________________ |
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